It has now been over a week since I first officially called Butler my "home." My official residence is Ross Hall, but Lilly seems to be my primary residence. So far I have been able to keep up with the 3-hour per day practicing routine, but it is merely the fourth full day of classes. I have luckily been able to catch up on my lack of 3-hour practicing over the summer.
My first block of practicing on school days has been from around 7:45 AM until 8:55 AM. This is what I hope to block as my most intensive warm-up and technique building session. In my past practice sessions, I have done my mixture of Dr. Chenoweth's "play anything" warm up and Dr. Carr's "strictly regimented" warm up. I started out with the standard 135b78 lip slurs to warm up the lips. My plan for this block in the future is extensive mouthpiece buzzing, long tones, and lip slurs. I have also been working during this block on articulation. I find that my biggest weakness in playing is my articulation. The Wendell Rider book has seemed to work well with this and I plan on using it extensively to build my articulation.
This week I prepared the audition music and the Gliere piece "Intermezzo." I felt that I did not prepare enough before getting to Butler to sufficiently audition for the orchestra. I was playing the music pretty well; however, nerves took over my playing. I prepared the Gliere in the Spring/Summer for my Senior Recital. I spent most of my time after auditions bringing this piece back to the quality I prepared it in May. I also read some of the etudes that I had played in the past to see how well I had remembered them. I look forward to starting new etudes tomorrow!
Well, this is all for now, but from now on, I will hopefully post on every day's practice progressions.
SethW
2 comments:
Great job with starting your blog! I'm also amazed that you can start practicing at 7:45! I tried the early practicing thing once and decided it wasn't for me, but it'll be very useful if you can keep it up!
Seth-
Great job with the blogging! I had done one last year and, since I'm a computer/internet junkie, it really motivated me to keep it up.
You sound like you have a really organized plan for your practice sessions! This is a great thing to do, especially right from the beginning. It will help you stay focused and cover all of your bases during your practice sessions.
Learn to love the Rider book. I have found it really helpful for providing variety in my warm ups... awesome.
Again, welcome to Butler and I look forward to your posts! :-)
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